“Naw.Just had to duck out of the way.There have been some lights, but no one has come in.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.I liked being trapped down here even less.
“Roger.We’re on our way up.”
Lacy wrapped her arm around her sister’s waist.“I’ve got you.”Layla gave her a tired smile and leaned against her.That smile was so like Lacy’s.
But her rescue meant that Lacy’s time on theFortunawas limited.I didn’t want her to go, but didn’t see any way she could stay.My team wouldn’t accept a Blazer—a Dupree—as a member of the crew.Would they?
Burn took the stairs first.She paused nearly at the top, her legs the only thing I could see.Then she scrambled up.“We’re clear, Sarge.C’mon up.”
Lacy and Layla moved slowly to the stairs.Without shoes, Layla was cautiously taking each step.
I didn’t blame her, but we didn’t have time for this.Faster would be better.We’d been lucky so far.I didn’t trust that it would last.
I secured my weapon and approached them.“Go,” I told Lacy.“Burn will guard you.I’ll bring Layla up.”
Lacy looked at me uncertainly.
“I promise,” I said.
“Are you okay with this?”Lacy asked her sister.
“Do you trust him?”
Lacy nodded without hesitation.
Layla’s eyes widened.“Okay, then I trust him too.Let’s go.”
Consent given, I wrapped my arm around Layla’s waist and placed the other under her knees.I swept her into my arms easily.
“Go,” I told Lacy again.“We’ll be right behind you.”
After a last searching look, she hurried to the stairs and up them.“Burn, keep an eye on Lacy.You’ve got the rear,” I told Mercer.
He nodded somberly.“Go.”
“I could have made it,” Layla said, after I barely missed knocking her head on the overhead beam.
I smiled.She said that in the same snotty tone that Lacy used sometimes.They were definitely related.“Not fast enough.”
“Yes, I?—”
I gave her a look.She stopped talking, but the mulish set of her jaw—something else she shared with her sister—told me that it wouldn’t be for long.
I was right.
“What’s going on between you and my sister?”
“What?”Distracted, I almost lost my footing.When I righted us and was able to look down at her, she was staring at me with a knowing expression.“Nothing.”I was not having this conversation.Not right now and not with her.
“Yeah, right.You just happened to almost break our necks because nothing is going on.”
“I didn’t almost break our necks,” I countered through clenched teeth.
She laughed and clapped her hands like a little kid who’s just learned a secret.
Dammit.It wasn’t a secret.It was...complicated.
